


Stop, Pause, Breathe, Continue

by sparkstarthetrashcan



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Miles Morales - Fandom, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Big Bang Challenge, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Lovers, Found Family, Groundhog Day, Humor, Lovers to Enemies to Friends, Lovers to enemies to lovers, M/M, POV First Person, Past Relationship(s), SMBB2018, Spider-Man Big Bang, Temporary Character Death, dysfunctional found family, past lovers to enemies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-24 15:11:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17706635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkstarthetrashcan/pseuds/sparkstarthetrashcan
Summary: Peter dies.And then he dies again. And again.And he's not the only one.Something isn't quite right here.~I rounded the corner, following the trail of destruction into an alleyway. “Hey, guys!” I shouted, drawing everyone’s attention-No way.The circus people?Shocked into stillness, my pause gave them an opening to rally.“‘At’s ‘im! Get ‘em!” One of them shouted, showing off his yellowed teeth to all the world. Again.Ewww…





	1. Chapter 1

**_Peter’s POV_ **

* * *

 

**_Bang!_ **

I startled out of bed, landing in an ungracious lump on the floor.

I rolled over, grabbing my web-shooters from under me and attaching them to my suit. Blindly reaching up, I fumbled for my phone. I dragged it down and squinted against the light.

Wait, what the hell? Six a.m.? What ungodly being woke me up?

Why had I stayed up so late patrolling? Why did work end so late? Why did school have to take up all my time? Honestly, I regret all of my life choices.

What was I doing? Superheroing. That thing. That I do.

But hey, I was already in my spidey suit! One less thing to worry about.

I shuffled over to the window, kicking some clothes and books out of the way in the process, and leaned out to see what I was going to come up against.

Debris littered the street like a prom gone wrong. Or at least like my prom had gone down. A car was on fire across the street. Further down, there was a shop with the windows smashed in. The inside was covered in bits of rubble and wood, the tables and hardware they sold in pieces.

The road was deserted, too. That was probably the most noteworthy thing because it was pretty ridiculous how many people I’ve had to save while they’re taking a picture. Especially around superhero battles. You would  _think_ people value their life more than a couple of likes on Instagram, but no.

All around the place were bits of concrete, smashed glass and holes in buildings like a riot had come through. Honestly, I was surprised all of this hadn’t woken earlier me.

I scratched my head. This was bad enough to get classes canceled, right?

Right?

I jumped up onto the windowsill and shot a web out at the nearest building… which I smacked into… because I got tangled in the webs.

You know what? This might as well happen.

I untangled myself out of my web-cocoon before crawling up onto the rooftop. I had to look for whatever was causing the explosions. Hoping for a pipeage problem was probably a bit too optimistic.

Maybe it was a villain who just loved bombs? Or Paste Pot Pete? Oh, please let it be him. I just wanted something simple and easy, and not aliens that take forty-eight hours to defeat.

I had been there before. I was way too tired to deal with that today.

Whatever gods there are, please let me rest. Even if it’s just Loki that I have to beg to, I will. I just want to sleep. Is that so hard? Was I asking too much?

_Behind, incoming._

Ah, the old Parker Luck. Things like this always happen when I want it to go the opposite way.

I was forced to jump to the side as something zipped past me. I was up moments later, trying to track its path, but it disappeared behind a building. And then it exploded. And then there was another explosion the way I had aimed on going.

I sighed. This was already shaping up to be a terrible day.

So, trusting my gut, I followed the path that the flying mysterious thing had probably taken in reverse.

Lo and behold, only a couple alleyways down, there were people. And not just any people! People with guns.

Damnit. Life, you are a cruel thing. This was the exact opposite of what I needed today!

The people there were all clustered in a big group. I was expecting them to be beating up some poor guy who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe a gang war (which would explain the explosions… to a point). Nope, instead, they were all just standing around looking kind of bored.

Oh! And some of the people had gotten more creative than  _just_ having guns. Some had crowbars, others had pipes, and most impressively, another had a bazooka.

A  _freaking bazooka._

They all seemed to be wearing the same type of clothes too, jackets with some kind of skull emblem, like they were trying to be the best flashmob in New York.  _That_ title had already been taken by Fisk with his troops.

In all honesty, they looked like they had crawled out of some bad action movie with low production value and high testosterone. Like Terminator.

Welp, this probably meant I had to take them all down. The sooner I did that, the sooner I could go back home and pass out.

As I swung towards them, a bald guy with tattoos absolutely covering him - like he thought they would make him cool - spotted me. “‘At’s ‘im! Get ‘em!” he shouted, showing off his yellowed teeth to all the world.

 _Ew_ , Gross.

I aborted my swing in favor of just aiming myself at one of the guys and pulling myself towards him like a bullet, kicking him in the guts. I then used him as leverage to backflip out of the way of one of the goons who had decided it was the perfect time to try and hit me with a crowbar.

He ended up hitting his buddy in the face, effectively meaning that with barely any effort two of the men were already down and out for the count.

“Hey, guys! I didn’t know the circus was in town, you should’ve put up flyers!” I yelled at them.

And they shot at me, like the assholes they were.

I flipped and twisted myself out of the way until I got close enough to the group to land a few solid punches before jumping back to avoid some bullets.

“C’mon guys! Can’t we talk this over? Grab some coffee,--” my voice became strained for a second as I kicked one guy in the face and took the gun off another one “--wheat cakes, ice-cream… nobody can hate wheat cakes!”

I flipped backward, narrowly avoiding the bullets flying every which way around me. The unfortunate guy behind me ended up getting hit in the shoulder. I webbed him to the ground.

_Gun, behind._

I jumped at the alleyway wall, springing off of it to kick one of the guys in the back of the head. He had tried to shoot me too! Honestly, these guys weren’t even creative! I had semi-high hopes and they blew it!

I grabbed a hold of his gun and swung it at one guy who had been getting too close. He stumbled back from the blow and I used that moment to web him up too.

There was a flash of green to my side.

**Bang!**

A bullet buried itself into my stomach.

I stumbled back, already covering the wound with a hand. I winced at the squelch I heard. That… that definitely wasn’t good.

**Bang!**

Another one in my shoulder.

Crap, this was getting out of hand. Maybe I should get out of here and regroup, dress my wounds and then give this a second go. Surely there were some other heroes around. But they had that big bazooka, someone could seriously get hurt and-

I slipped out of the way as one of the circus men tried to take a swing at me, dodged a bullet that would have buried itself in my head, but was too slow to move out of the way of another.

“Hey, guys, I call for a timeout!” I yelled, wincing at the pain I was finally starting to feel. I hastily grabbed a clip of webs, flicking a switch on it for just this very purpose, and threw it at the ground.

As hoped, it exploded in every which way, including at me, and trapped all of us.

With the pause in the battle, I was able to finally look down at myself.

Blood, everywhere.

Ha, who would have thought Spider-Man would die from such a small battle? Not even against some big bad villain?

I hope Aunt May wouldn’t be too mad…

* * *

 

**_Boom!_ **

I flung myself onto the ceiling, gasping for breath. I grabbed for my stomach, feeling around for a hole in my costume, a wound, anything.

I was… whole?

Shoulder? I grabbed at it, trying to find the wound. I had been shot! Why wasn’t there any wound?!

I let myself fall back onto my bed, which bounced a few times before coming to a stop.

I wasn’t hurt, nothing was wrong with me. Wow… ha, what a vivid dream. I was still shaking and I could swear I still felt some phantom pain!

I laughed quietly, rubbing tiredly at my head. That’s what you got for patrolling until two am. What time was it anyway?

I picked up my phone. Six a.m.? Damnit! Why had someone decided that illegal fireworks were great  _at six a.m._?!

Another explosion rocked my room and someone screamed. I reluctantly grabbed my web-shooters and mask from the minefield that was my apartment floor. I’ll just go tell these people off, get them to stop, and crawl back into bed and sleep till midday.

I shuffled over to the window and slipped out in one move.

I rounded the corner, prepared to yell about firework safety when-

_Dodge left, incoming._

I aborted my swing as fast as I could, narrowly avoiding the whatever-it-was hurtling towards me like a balloon losing air.

And then there was a  _huge_ explosion, followed by several people screaming.

I picked myself up from the ground, glancing back to find a crater in the road.

This wasn’t good.

I rounded the corner, following the trail of destruction into an alleyway. “Hey, guys!” I shouted, drawing everyone’s attention-

No way.

The circus people?

Shocked into stillness, my pause gave them an opening to rally.

“‘At’s ‘im! Get ‘em!” One of them shouted, showing off his yellowed teeth to all the world. Again.

Ewww…

C’mon Peter, get it together.

I ran toward them, and at the last moment flung myself at the alleyway wall. I backflipped off of it and tackled one of them to the ground, then sprung backward off of him, webbed him, and then reattached myself to the alleyway wall.

Wow, that was pretty cool!

“Hey, guys! I didn’t know ballet was in town, you should have put up more flyers!” I teased them.

And they shot at me, because of course they did.It couldn’t be a “  _proper”_ fight without some bullets.

I flipped, twisted and jumped out of the way until I got close enough to the group to do any damage. I was able to land a few solid punches before I was forced to jump back and away to avoid being littered with holes.

“You all dance so prettily too! All coordinated!” my voice became strained for a second as I kicked another guy in the face and took the gun off another one, “Encore! Encore!”

And they shot at me again. Honestly, did they know any other way to fight? The bullets missed me by a mile!

I aimed and webbed several guys to the floor, effectively taking them out of the fight. Including Bazooka Guy.

“Hey, Bazooka Guy! Question, is that compensating for anything?”

He was quick to curse me out, something about dust, a funnel, and my guts. Very creative. A-plus.

It only took a couple bigger webs to get the rest of the guys. I finished with a bow to my cursing crowd.

“Thank you! Thank you! I’ll be here all night!”

I straightened back up, dusting my hands off. Alright, time to go back home and sleep. Maybe after I’ll try and do some laundry or something. This was my last clean spider-man suit… if you called a day of wearing it under your clothes clean.

I turned around and started heading back. Maybe I could go grocery shopping too, and maybe do some of that chemistry homework. Maybe give the apartment a clean if I had the chance. Or even-

_Behind, incoming._

I whipped around, ready to fight, when too late I realized I had made the wrong move.

The Bazooka Guy had managed to aim at me.

One of the missiles was headed straight for me.

Damnit.

* * *

 

An explosion echoed along the street, followed by a scream. Then another, this time closer and rocking my bed, and cars honked their distress in the street below.

I shot up and tumbled out of bed, smacking my elbow against the ground in the process. Only half coherent, I struggled to untangle my legs from my sheets.

My body ached fiercely, crying out at me to  _do something_.  _Don’t just wait around!_

I sighed, rubbing at my face. What time even was it?

I looked over at the alarm. Six a.m.

 _What?!_ Trying to calm down, I looked myself over for any injuries while the pain ebbed away. I was... fine. Nothing was wrong with me. I was fine. I wasn’t dead. I hadn’t died. I was just having the worst case of deja vu  _ever._

This was crazy.

Two hours wasn’t enough time to dream an entire morning, let alone two,  _let alone die in both_! Didn’t people wake up  _before_ they died in dreams?

Maybe someone was messing with me. It could be Mysterio decided today was the day to experiment with dreams within dreams and go all  _Inception_ on me. I  _seriously_ hoped right now wasn’t  _another_ dream within a dream. Therapy already costs too much.

I pinched my arm.  _Ow_. Nope, real life. Pain isn't real in dreams.

Alright, whatever, that was weird. I could deal with this.

What do I do? Well, investigate the explosions, obviously. I guess if it happens again  _that’s_ the time to be worried. Who knows? Maybe I’d gotten home at twelve instead of four and had had enough time to dream out a day?

I pulled myself off the floor and grabbed my web-shooters, putting them on with shaking hands.

There was another explosion with more blood-curdling screams.

I took a deep breath, calming my nerves. I could do this. I am Spider-man. People were in danger.

I got up, checking that my web-shooters were on right before I climbed out the window. This time I was going to take these goons down and then go about my life.

Except, when I got there, everyone was already tied up. I cautiously peered into the alleyway from my vantage point on the wall.

All their weapons looked beyond use. The bazooka was bent, their guns were sliced in half and all the men were lying around. No blood, not dead but definitely unconscious.

And to add the cherry on top, an unfortunately familiar red spandex loving mercenary was leaning against the alleyway wall.

I dropped down to ground level, folding my arms and sauntering up to him. “What are you  _doing_ here?”

He actually seemed to relax? What the hell?

“Hey, Spidey, long time no see! How you been, baby boy?” He asked cheerfully, still not looking over at me. Apparently, his hands were more interesting.

I had to stop myself from curling my hands into fists. Some of the men were concerningly still, though I count fainty hear them breathing. But for all I knew, there was a dead guy in the dumpster. “Did you kill anyone?”

Wade leaned his head back so he was staring at the sky and sighed like everything I was saying was tiring him out. “No, I didn't. I know how you feel about that.”

“You didn’t answer my first question either, you know.  _Why_ are you  _here_?” I ground out.

He tilted his head as if trying to mimic a puppy. “You make a lot of enemies, you know.”

“Are you keeping tabs on me?” I hissed, jabbing a finger towards him.

He dropped his gun carelessly to the side and strode up to me, using his height to loom over me. It wasn’t very effective, villains did it better. “You know full well I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was important.”

“You think everything is important!” I spat, refusing to take a step back.

Deadpool leaned back as if trying to size me up. Probably trying to figure out what my next move was going to be. I hated how observant he was.

If he couldn’t read people, he wouldn’t really be a good mercenary, after all. All part of the job description. Along with bloodlust, a twisted morality, and good aim.

“When was the last time you washed your costume?” he asked instead, completely changing the subject.

This wasn’t worth punching him over. This wasn’t worth the time or the energy. I had things to do that were way more important than him and whatever games he was trying to play this time.

Forgoing an answer, I simply turned around and webbed away.

* * *

 

Work didn’t give me a break and neither did college.

Three more essay assignments on some boring aspect of chemistry and honestly I just wanted to smother myself with a pillow.

Alas, I couldn’t blow this off because it counted for a fair amount of my grade.

I leaned back in my chair, staring blankly at the word document, which was also blank.

This sucked.

Alright, time to actually try to get some work done.

T - h - e….

…

……

…….?

Nope, I couldn’t do this. This was torture on my mind and body and soul. This paper sucked and life sucked and Wade sucked and could someone  _please_ come to smother me with a pillow!

C’mon Pete, just two-thousand more words. Two thousand more and you can go to sleep and forget about the day and hopefully get smothered with that pillow while you slept.

Ah, wouldn’t that be glorious?

What time was it anyway? I glanced at the clock in the corner of my screen. 11:58.

Hey, that wasn’t too bad! Maybe if I get this done by two am I won’t be dead tired tomorrow. Five full hours of sleep… man, that sounded like bliss.

I blinked, right, focus, work to do.

The b-o-n-d…

I groaned, I hated this already. If I can just-

* * *

 

**_Bang!_ **

I fell out of bed, tumbling onto the ground and smacking my funny bone onto the ground.

Cursing, I scrambled to sit up. I looked up at my bed.

I wasn’t there a moment ago. I had been studying! One moment I had been studying and now I was-

Oh my god.

I snagged my phone off the bedside table. 6 am! It was yesterday again?!

This wasn’t fair. This shouldn’t be happening! I met Wade yesterday- I mean today and we had that fight after I fought the circus men and… the day before that I had fought them and died…

I rubbed tiredly at my forehead, where a headache was blooming. Nope, I was going insane. I had just had a dream within a dream where I had lived two full days, one where I had thought I had had a dream within a dream when I had woken up that day and-

The building shook again as a lady a couple floors above me screamed.

Right, I had to go fight the circus men. And avoid Wade. And get on with life.

Easy enough, right?

I palmed around for my mask and haphazardly put it on before I shuffled over to the open window.

Here we go again, hopefully for the last time. I slipped out of the window with ease and arched into my first swing.

Around the block, I found them. Again. But everything had gone quiet and there were no more explosions.

Please,  _please_ don’t be Deadpool.

I landed at the beginning of the alleyway, cautiously peering into the dark passageway.

Huh, someone else had come to help this time. And it wasn’t Deadpool because I knew he didn’t have any of my webs. I casually walked into the alleyway, noting how it looked like a bomb in the form of webs had gone off. It was not the prettiest of sights.

Looking up, I found a familiar teenager swinging his legs idly as he sat on the edge of a fire escape.

“Hey, Spidey! Do you like my gift?” Miles asked, a huge smile visible even through his mask.

I looked over the mess of an alleyway a second time, then put my hands on my hips. “Did you seriously use a whole cartridge of webs for these goons? I think we need to do more training.”

“That’s what you focus on? Not even following up my joke about us both being Spider-man?” He said, putting his hand over his forehead like he was a damsel in distress in a sixties movie.

“That joke got old years ago and you know it. Isn’t it a school day? What are you doing here in Queens of all places?” I asked, folding my arms and jutting my hips out like an old teacher trying to scold a class of teenagers. Which felt way too accurate at the moment.

He shrugged. “Oh, nothing much. Just felt like the right thing to do. Wouldn’t want anyone getting killed now, right?”

I narrowed my eyes. “‘Wouldn’t want anyone getting killed now?” I echoed.

That made him shift suspiciously. “They wanted to kill you. So I stopped them. End of story. And I mean, who brings a grenade launcher to a street brawl? Can’t let ‘em run around.”

“Did they say something about wanting to kill me?” I asked, keeping my voice light-hearted.

He nodded quickly. “Yeah! Now I’m sure you have places to be-”

“Nah. I’ll come with you back to your school, how does that sound?”

“No!” He exclaimed. I smirked at the same time he stiffened.

“You trying to skip school or something? Miles. C’mon.” I jumped up to join him on the web.

He shifted, bringing his legs up under him so he was sitting cross-legged. “No… I just wanted to go do something more…” he waved his hands around like it explained everything, “y’know!”

I tilted my head. “‘Something more, y’know?’ Sounds great, kiddo. Schools still important.”

He grovelled for a few seconds, burying his head in his hands. “Just because you’re a nerd who’s doing a freaking Master course at NYU doesn’t mean I have to.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. C’mon kid, this ain’t like you,” I prodded.

“I’ll just get notes from Ganke?” He replied, looking the other way.

“Your boyfriend, huh?” The glare I got made it well worth it. “Won’t your teachers be worried?”

He shrugged. “It won’t matter by tomorrow.”

Another red flag. Huge red flag. I looked down at the ‘circus men’ still trapped in huge balls of webs. “How about we get outta here? I’ll get you some pizza.”

“What about burgers?” Miles pleaded as we both got up, shooting our own respective webs at the closest building.

“Sure kid, your pick.”

* * *

 

“So I speed around the corner, my arms stuffed with chemicals that I don’t even know the name of and a hundred scientists chasing after me with guns-”

“Woah wait, when did they get guns?” I asked, waving a fry around.

“In the elevator! Keep up, Pete. So I’m yelling about how this is the worst day of my life when guess who bursts in through the vent?”

“Captain America?”

“No, screw him. Black Widow!”

“You sure she wasn’t a clone?”

“No! We had already killed the clone.”

“That’s right. What the hell was she doing there?”

“Well, here’s the thing. Turns out she had been following me from the moment I fell through the ceiling so I was all like, ‘what the hell? Black widow!’ and she just gives me that look. You know the look right?”

“Oh, I know the look.”

“And she goes ‘good job kid, I’ll take it from here.”

“No!”

“Yeah, she did! Well, it was more like ‘huh. You get out of here’ but in Black Widow speech that’s basically a compliment.”

We were both interrupted by an explosion outside. We both watched as a red and black person went flying out of sight.

“Wait, who was that?” Miles asked, turning to me, blinking a few times.

“I don’t think it was Daredevil. Daredevil has way more grace than that.” I mused.

“So who else do we know whos a red and black wearing superhero? Or a villain? Maybe it was just a normal guy getting blown up?” He paused to take a bite out of his burger. “Wait that’s Deadpool isn’t it?”

I shook my head, devouring the last of my burger before standing up. This was going to be a nightmare. “How about we go check it out rather than just wondering.”

Miles chuckled, “Yeah that might just do the trick.”

We both went into the McDonald's bathroom and changed into our respective costumes. Only a minute later we were both outside looking at the chaos around us.

“Someone was having an off day,” Miles murmured beside me.

“‘Off day’ is an understatement and you know it,” I whispered right back.

In the relatively short amount of time we had been eating at McDonald's, the whole street had turned into a rubble-filled mess like the Hulk had rampaged through it. And in the middle of it all was Deadpool…

Who was singing about pina-coladas in the rain?

And not only was he singing some 80’s song, but he was also getting shot at by a different group of ‘circus people’ than the ones that had tried to kill me this morning.

A headache began to pound behind my eyes.

“Should we step in?” Miles asked hesitantly.

I rubbed at my nose, “No. Let him do his thing. We’ll just get civilians out of the way if we need to, ok?”

He nodded firmly. We paused watching the carnage go on for a few moments before he spoke up again. “Hey, Spidey?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we just going to watch this fight…?”

“Do you have any other ideas?”

“Well, uh, no, but-”

“Then don’t worry about it. Despite appearances, Deadpool isn’t as insane as he acts,” I explained quietly.

Miles stared at me, probably trying to figure out what the hell I was thinking. I ignored his searching gaze and kept watching the fight.

With everything that had happened between us… I did know that he respected me enough to not kill in New York. I wasn’t sure how much he bent that rule… but he wouldn’t outright kill out in the open. That much I was certain of.

Especially because killing in the open meant that it would somehow or another come back to me.

Let’s just say people had somehow mistaken our costumes to be the same more than once. I wasn’t really sure how, but it has happened.

Not five minutes later all the ‘circus men’ were tied up and Deadpool was dusting his hands off.

I rolled my eyes. I didn’t need to see anymore. All I had needed to know was whether he would kill anyone and luckily, he hadn’t. I went to grab Miles’ shoulder to drag him along, but flinched away as he suddenly shouted-

“Yo! Deadpool!”

Unluckily, he was drawn to the noise. He seemed to brighten up as he realised who it was and came sauntering over with a huge smile on his face, visible even through his mask

“If it isn’t Spider-man and Spider-kid! Hey, Baby boy! How are you doing?” He asked cheerfully, his eyes watching my every move.

“Fuck off,” I growled.

He gasped dramatically, slapping his hands over his mouth.  _“Language_ in front of children, young man! Has nobody ever taught you manners!”

I stared at him, refusing to dignify that with an answer.

He turned to Miles instead. “What are you doing around these parts anyway? I’ve never seen you come this way before.”

Miles tilted his head, folding his arms. “What does that mean?”

Wade grinned even more, but it looked way more strained than his normal one. “Doesn’t have to mean anything. You know me, or at least I assume you do. Wade Winston Wilson, at your service!”

“At my service, huh? Tell me whatcha meant then? Cause I have definitely swung through here multiple times,” Miles pried. I couldn’t help my fond smile.

He shrugged, dancing back. “Just feeling very groundhoggy day, anyway I have to go! See ya Baby Boy and spidey-kid!”

He threw down a smoke bomb. Both Miles and I stumbled back a step, waving away the fumes. Wade was gone.

Miles turned to me after the smoke had cleared, hands on his hips. “Baby boy, huh?”

“Do not start on me, young man.”

* * *

 

It was pretty quiet the rest of the day. I never did force Miles to go to school, whenever I tried to bring it up he changed the subject away from school into something I was doing or something he had spotted.

So we just chilled and ate various unhealthy junk food together. It was pretty good.

That night when I went to bed, I couldn’t help but hope that mentoring Miles for the day was what would let me see the next day come.

Or, if the logic of the Groundhog day movie was true that would be the case.

It wasn’t like I could magically solve everyone's problems in New York in a day. Ha, as if.


	2. Chapter 2

**_MILES POV_ **

_ “And I'm like baby, baby, baby oh _

_ Like baby, baby, baby no-” _

I researched over and smashed the alarm.

“Ganke you’re an asshole,” I muttered into my pillow.

Of course, he had decided today was the day to change my alarms music into something obnoxious. The one day that I had to live through over and over and over again, this was the music.

I would rather have ABBA as the alarm, anything other than the _ worst song in existence!  _ The gods hated me. Life hated me. I hated life too.

I half-heartedly rolled out of bed, landing with a thump, and reached for my costume. Might as well try and figure out if Wade really was in on this whole…

Thing…

I struggled into the costume, grabbed my web-shooters and got out of the dorm room before Ganke could wake up.

First I had to go to Peter’s place and stop those goons. Really, who would have thought they would be able to kill Spider-man? And not once, but twice. Then Deadpool had stepped in, and then I had stepped in.

And I was going to step in again.

I landed with a roll onto one of the buildings next to the alleyway. As I got up and brushed myself off, I did a quick survey of the goons.

“Hey guys, watch this!” One of them yelled, laughing maniacally before he pointed his gun at some cans stacked in a pile and shot one of them, sending them crashing down. The rest of them joined in.

I rolled my eyes. And they called _ me _ a teenager.

I sat down, turning my back to them. If I wait around long enough, either Deadpool, Peter, or both were going to show up.

If Deadpool really was in on this, he would be anyway.

I sat on the building at the top of the alleyway, idly swinging my feet. Peter wasn’t always the sharpest tool in the shed. Well, he was way smarter than me but he had a certain…

Tunnel-vision. He only saw the crimes happening, his course and then not much else. If the state of his costume on a good day was anything to go by, he was struggling to rake in enough.

Kinda felt guilty for letting him drag me to McDonald's yesterday. That wasn’t money he needed to spend on me.

Not to mention Deadpool. He seemed to have plenty to hide. Man, the rumours about him were out there. Insane? No. He seemed like any other superhero to me.

Was that weird? Maybe.

Superheroes always had this… type to them. Mental illnesses were definitely apart of that. I knew even I was treading that line. And I hadn’t even died yet! But Deadpool has, and he has died a lot. 

I sighed, leaning my head against my hand. C’mon Deadpool, I had literally no other way to find you. Please show up.

My prayers were answered. There was a sudden shout from beneath me and I got the honour of watching Deadpool quickly but efficiently take down every single one of the goons. Some looked like they had broken bones for sure but none of them were dead.

For a guy named “Deadpool,” you would think he would at least accidentally kill a guy.

As soon as the last guy was wrapped up I decided now was the time to “reveal” myself. Aiming carefully, I shot a web that hooked on to Deadpool's costume and jerked him up towards me.

The shrill cry of alarm was just a bonus.

He ended up sprawled face down on the concrete of this apartment. I snickered, covering my mouth as I pivoted around to face him.

“Hey, Deadpool! Nice day we’re having!” I declared.

He groaned something I couldn’t understand into the concrete before raising an arm and giving me a thumbs up. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Now that I have your attention, Wade, I have a few questions,” I began.

Deadpool rolled over and tilted his head so he was looking over at me. “Shoot kid, whatcha wanna know from old papa Deadpool.”

I leaned forward, ignoring the whole ‘papa Deadpool’ thing. “Are you or are you not experiencing repeating days?”

He stared blankly at me for a few long moments. Or maybe he did, masks were a pain like that. “Wow, didn’t expect the kid of tall, dark and mysterious to be so blunt.”

“Tall? Dark? Mysterious? Are you talking about Spider-man here?” I trailed off in confusion.

He laughed, “Oh don’t worry. I know he's anything but, except for the mysterious part. You try getting a direct answer out of him if things are going to shit in his life and you’re screwed. Believe me, I know. Actual real life ‘world’s going to explode’ and suddenly he's running his mouth so hard he's trying to take my place as the loosest tongue in the superhero world.”

I blinked. “That’s, um, one way to explain it.” Wait, I was getting sidetracked. “Look, are you or are you not? Looking for a friend.”

He finally pushed himself up, resting his arms on his knees. “Yeah kid, I am. You too, huh?”

I shrugged, “It’s been kinda boring spending two days in the same class being taught the same thing. And Spidey being dead on top of that?” I whistled a sad tune, “yikes.”

“Damn, sucks to be you, kid. So that’s why you’re running around on a school day?”

I rolled my eyes. “Obviously. But seriously, what are we going to do?”

“Spider-man is in on it too,” Deadpool said instead, dodging my question once again.

I frowned. “Are you sure? He did die those two days…”

Deadpool grinned. “Oh, I’m sure of it. First off, if he wasn’t he would be here by now. Second off, he’s way jumpier than even  _ he _ usually is. Thirdly, didn’t you notice how he shifted when I mentioned groundhog day? The same exact way you did - like he was staring down a new puzzle.”

“How the hell do you know all this?” I asked, standing up and crossing my arms. At this point, he sounded like a stalker.

“Kid, believe it or not, I used to date him,” he drawled like it was the most obvious thing in the world instead of a  _ huge _ bomb.

“You what?!” I cried, waving my arms around like a madman.

He laughed, “Sure did kid. He and I were smooching on every rooftop from here to Times Square.”

“No way, nuh uh.” I stopped to scrutinise him. “Really?”

“Yep. But now he hates me and that's fun, but don’t worry about it kid. I’m not some crazy stalker. I’m just a highly trained mercenary.”

I paused again, turning back to quickly check our surroundings before leaning closer to Deadpool once again. “So you know his secret identity, right?”

He scoffed, “yeah sure, we totally ‘did the do’ in our masks. Yes, I do know Peter and his bubble butt.”

I scrunched my nose up in disgust. “Ew, gross dude. I feel like I just walked in on my parents or something. I did not need to know anything about that.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re ten and disgusted by romantic stuff. Have you ever had a relationship, kiddo?” He asked, tilting his head like he wasn’t patronising me.

I shoved his face away, and he dropped dramatically onto the cement, crying out about elder abuse and 911.

“Are you even going to help me figure out how the hell to get out of this day?” I grumbled.

He reached forward and was probably going to try and pet my head before I grabbed his wrist. He sighed, seemingly resigned.

“Yeah kid, ‘course. This is hell, even being an adult with money and crap. You got any ideas?” He asked, voice dropping softer then I had ever heard it before.

I frowned. I really had no plans. Having someone with me had seemed like a great idea rather than the same people with predictable responses. Deadpool was the exact opposite of predictable, especially because in general I didn’t even know the dude.

Hmm.

“Have you ever seen the movie groundhog day?” I asked.

He scoffed, “‘course I have, who hasn’t?”

“I haven’t…”

When he looked back over at me, a huge smile stretching over his face, (that was visible even through his mask) I wasn’t afraid to admit I was scared.

* * *

“Wooowwww this guy is a creep. He's not even trying to get to know her properly! He’s just trying to get in her pants and impress her,” I grumbled.

“You saying that you, the sixteen-year-old, could woo a person better than him?”

“Yes! Ok, y’know what I would do? Grab some flowers, watch the stars and let her spill her heart out or something, I don’t know. But he's literally stealing all her lines!”

“Passionate there, kiddo. Something you want to tell me?” Wade asked, his grin betraying his mischievousness.

“Oh shove it granny.”

* * *

“Ok, ok, so he’s in a bottomless pit of despair, he's killing himself-” I began.

“Mood.”

“So he starts killing himself in not even that creative of ways?”

“Hey! He has so! He stole that groundhog and let it drive him off a cliff. Would you have thought of that?” Wade said defensively.

“...”

“Yeah, that's what I thought, amateur.”

* * *

“I want to learn how to play the piano someday…” Wade sighed wistfully.

“Then go learn. You’re like, basically immortal, right? You’ve got money, too. Just go find some lessons and spend a year or something learning it.”

“You think I would be good at piano…?”

“Don’t tear up on me. I’m just saying, you can do a lot with the time you’ve got!”

“Like get into Spidey’s pants.”

“Dude! Now you’re being Phil at the start of the movie! Gross! Stop laughing, you maniac!” ****

* * *

********

“So what did we learn?”

“Groundhog day is the worst, Phil was sort of a dick and still left that old guy in the alleyway to be a corpse _ in an alleyway _ , endless time means endless piano lessons and there's no way we can solve the problems of eight million people in a day.”

“Unless we make the whole city high.”

“Um, some people might get medical complications from that.”

“What? C’mon, it's just weed.”

“Have you done biology? At all? There's every chance that someone has a mutation that makes weed deadly to them.”

“Killjoy.”

“Dumbass.”

Wade hoisted himself up out of the blanket cocoon he had made for himself, grabbing some empty bowls on the way. I had ended up in some old comfy pyjamas of mine (on Wade’s recommendation). We had gotten ice-cream, popcorn, candy, pizza… so much in fact that even  _ my _ stomach was being quenched.

Wade was nice, really nice. He hadn’t needed to go all out but he did. Or maybe because he was rich and could do whatever the hell he wanted.

Either way, I felt good.

“Want anything else kid? Mint ice-cream? Apple crumble? You name it I’ll grab it.”

“A way out of this hell hole?” I asked, half joking.

“Same. What movie do you want to watch next?” Wade came back into the room with two tubs of ice cream. To hell with it, I grabbed the chocolate one and began to dig in.

“You pick, I don’t really care,” I said after a spoonful.

He sighed, “that’s too many options kid. You can’t put that kind of pressure on me.”

A thought came to me. “Why do you call me ‘kid’ anyway?”

He paused in his clicking, glanced over at me and shrugged before resuming. “You are really young. It feels weird to call you anything different.”

“What, Miles is too odd for you?” I teased.

He did a full body eye roll. Head rolling, folding his arms, in other words being a thirteen-year-old who was in their rebellion phase being told they couldn’t go to the party with booze. “The one joy in life I have is nicknaming people! And you’ve got to come along and try and ruin it!”

“Is that why you call Peter ‘Baby Boy’?” I asked, leaning forward like we were two kids gossiping.

He went still, body tensing up. I gulped nervously. “Uh, Wade?”

“Yeah let’s go with that. Cute nickname right? Really annoys him. Anyway, I think this movie looks good-”

“No no, wait.” A thought was occurring to me. If I really did learn anything from  _ Groundhog Day _ , Phil had to learn how to be a better person to get with his love interest. Peter and Wade are both good people but there is a lot of tension between them. And not in a good way. Something had definitely happened between them.

Wade had been staring, waiting for me quietly the whole time.

“Do you have any feelings for Peter?” I asked.

Wade sighed wistfully, relaxing into the couch cushions. “Yeah. I do. Peter’s just…” he waved his hands in the air before strangling an invisible Peter.

I rubbed at the back of my neck. “Yeah, I get that.” I was definitely going to investigate this more… tomorrow. I was tired. “Hey, Wade? Do you know when time resets?”

“Why don’t we find out?”

* * *

_ “Like baby, baby, baby oh _

_ I thought you'd always be mine (mine)-” _

I stretched far enough out from my warm blankets to smash the thing into pieces. “‘ _ Always be mine _ ’ my ass.”

Midnight didn’t work. It felt like only a moment ago Wade and I were eating ice cream and watching the clock. Guess staying up for eternity isn’t the way to cheat the system, unfortunately.

* * *

I was finishing up rounding up all the goons for this looped day when Peter showed up. “Hey Miles, having fun?” He asked, walking up to me.

I brushed my hands off. “Sure, if you call moving grown men around fun. Whatcha doing here?”

He shrugged, “Well, there was a loud bang so I came to investigate.” He looked around, and I internally winced. I had used up maybe more webs then I needed to… again.

“I know this is a mess, but I am getting better! I just need to remember-”

“You want to do some training together?” he interrupted.

I blinked up at him, “really?”

He smiled and nodded. I struggled to contain my squeal of glee.  _ Thankfully _ I succeeded otherwise that would have been  **super** embarrassing.

* * *

“So when you’re firing, you’ve gotta make sure you’re making the type of web you want-”

“I know that, hold longer for webs that you want to connect to buildings, shorter for quick web bursts.”

“Right, but even a fraction of a second can make a world of difference. When you’re free-falling, having a web a meter longer or shorter could have you in trouble. You could smack into the ground or into a building and let me tell you, that is  _ not _ fun,” Peter explained, carefully taking his web-shooter apart.

I peered around his head. “Is it really that sensitive?”

“Of course! Even that fraction of a second could make a world of difference.” He glanced up at me before getting back to work. “You probably already know how fast fights can be, but when you’re trying to protect civilians and disarm a bomb and fight the bad guy of the week, things can get pretty messy in that fraction of a second.”

I rolled my eyes. “You do know that I have fought some pretty full on guys before, right?”

“Not with web-shooters like these! Now look here, see this compartment-?”

I zoned him out as I spotted something red and black moving in the corner of my eyes. I stood up, ignoring Peter’s confused noise. Deadpool?

Peter got up too, spotted him, and scowled. “Ignore him, he's probably off to blow something up.”

I frowned, “he seems pretty chill?”

Peter shook his head, “who knows with him, one moment he's as sweet as a button and then he murders someone. Let's get back down to work, shall we?”

I hesitated, “you don’t really think that, do you? He’s not really that… unstable.”

He paused in his shuffling. “No… but sometimes he betrays peoples trust.”

“Peter, you’re making zero sense.”

He groaned, rubbing at his nose. “We used to date, ok? And he did some stuff behind my back that I had asked him not to and we haven’t been on good terms since. Can we please do some more of this?”

I bit my lips. I couldn’t exactly do anything now… Tomorrow.

“Alright.”

* * *

Ok, right, game plan. Drag Peter and Wade together, try and make them sort out their issues like a couple in marriage counselling, finally get to move on to the next day.

Another day of school… of explaining why I had skipped and let everyone down… it was going to be _ oh so much fun. _

Whatever it would be fine. If this did work it can be a fun story Peter, Wade and I can share. We can go ‘oh yeah! Remember that time we had the same day six times in a row?’ ‘that was terrible!’ instead of ‘remember that time we had the same day over and over and we all eventually ended up committing suicide just to get something new out of a day?’ ‘oh yeah…’

Gotta solve this quick.

Which was why I had tied Wade up into a web cocoon and was crawling through Peter’s window at six am with Wade on my back. Wade hadn’t been hard to find considering he was trying to take down the goons again before Peter woke up.

Ah, the joys of being a superhero in a looping day.

Wade struggled even harder when he saw the now waking Spider-man.

I dropped him onto the floor of the apartment (Wade didn’t even make that much of a noise. Not a ‘thump’ or anything. Peter’s floor was just that covered in clothes and the like) and jumped on to the bed.

“Hey, Pete!” I yelled.

Peter startled so violently he ended up on the floor as well, groaning and rubbing his head. “What the hell Miles?”

“Not just Miles, I brought a friend,” I declared, sitting down on the bed like a school child ready for show and tell.

Peter didn’t have his mask on so I got the glorious look of terror on his face. He cautiously peeked around the corner of his bed, saw the webbed up Wade waving with what limited mobility he had, and facepalmed so hard he caused a red mark.

“Wade? Seriously? Why did you web him up? Did I suddenly wake up in an alternate universe? Is this hell?”

“Yes, yes, easier to carry around, no and yes. Same time loop, same people stuck with you. Should I leave you lover-birds alone now?”

This time Wade and Peter were both glaring at me. I refused to cower. If I didn’t trip over thin air when Captain America talked to me that one time in my universe, then I wasn’t going to be intimidated when my hero and… what even was Wade to me? A funny mentor? When they glared at me.

Peter got to his feet and walked over to Wade, ripping him out of his bindings (failed prototype Web formula #39, can’t go up against Peter’s strength turns out) before reaching down and unmerciful tearing the web off of his mouth that had until now been preventing him from talking.

“How the hell did you let a sixteen-year-old overpower you?”

“Ask me that again when you notice that that teenager has superpowers on par with yours,” Wade pointed out, pulling himself to his feet.

“He’s got a point. Hey, have we ever arm wrestled, Pete?” I asked him.

I didn’t get an answer.

Wade and Peter were staring at each other. Peter shifted, folding his arms, scowl growing. Wade just looked… frustrated?

I was beginning to regret bringing these two together.

Wade looked around the room. “Like what you’ve done with the place.”

Peter’s fist curled several times and I could see him slowly counting to ten. “Yeah. Thanks. Miles shouldn’t have brought you here.”

“What, so I wouldn’t see the hell you’re living in right now? So I wouldn’t see that your whole ‘I'm an independent woman’ went badly? You need help-”

“ **_I’m not a charity case!_ ** ” Peter yelled. Wade froze and I started.

I swallowed, putting my hands in my laps. They were shaking.

“I never said you were! If you would just ask for help-” Wade started, visibly frustrated.

“I don’t need your fucking help!” He roared back.

“Yes, you do! You shouldn’t be living like this! Let me help you…” He sighed, rubbing his face tiredly. “Fine, if not you, then Spider-Man. Think about how all this could be affecting that-” 

Peter grit his teeth, a warning in the way he held himself. “I’m doing fine as Spider-man-”

Wade ignored it. “You died! You died two times! I know you don’t think anything of it but you do  _ mean _ something to people. You  _ mean _ something to me and May. Do I really need to tell you how devastated May was?”

Peter’s voice was so quiet I almost didn’t hear it. “Stop.”

“They showed your face all over the news and that's how she found out. I was there as she saw all,” he gestured to the room around us, “this!”

“Stop.”

“She thought this was her fault! I thought you were gone forever!” Wade spat.

“Stop!” Wade finally quieted down, folding his arms and standing defensively. Peter took a deep breath. “Just stop. I made a stupid mistake, ok? But that doesn’t mean you can just but into my life whenever you feel like it-”

His voice was thick with disbelief. “Whenever I feel like it? I’ve been trying to be by your side, trying to keep you going, but as soon as I helped you pay for your degree you were gone! Like I had done something  _ god awful _ like burn down your house!”

“I told you not to pay for it!”

“ _ You _ were never going to be able to!” He sighed, counted to ten under his breath, and then tried again. “Peter, listen to me. I had the money to and I know how much this means to you-”

That sent Peter off. “That’s all  _ dirty money _ ! You got all of it from  _ killing _ people! I don’t want money that’s  _ got blood all over it _ !”

“Do you even try and see what the hell I’m doing nowadays?” Wade asked, voice going unnaturally soft.

Peter visibly swallowed. “I still told you not to.”

“And so we broke up, you moved out, and I became the bane of your existence? Great! Thanks! I just love being the bad guy!” He shook his head, shifting on his feet. “Whatever. Sorry, I tried to help. Sorry I wasn’t there to stop you from dying. See you later, or not.”

Wade walked past him, headed for the door. Peter turned, mouth open, reaching out after him, but stopped at the last moment.

The door creaked as it shut, leaving Peter and me alone together.

I swallowed, desperately wishing to be invisible and gone. Peter slowed moved over to the bed and laid down, curling up into a ball.

I caused this. It was my fault that they fought.

I quietly got up and crept over to the window. As I climbed out of the window, I absently noted that I had, in fact, camouflaged.

* * *

_ “And I'm like baby, baby, baby oh _

_ Like baby, baby, baby no _

_ Like baby, baby, baby oh-” _

“Shut up…” I groaned, smashing my alarm into pieces once again.

* * *

That day I did everything I could to keep myself busy. I stopped robbers. I helped an old lady across the street (and stopped her from getting run over). I stopped a car from crashing. I helped a homeless lady to a shelter… I did everything that a superhero could and more. Even stopped a guy from tripping up a skateboarder (who does that?).

Anything to keep going, anything to map out what was happening. I knew it was useless but I even wrote what happened into a book. If I could memorise what happens in the day and at what times I could eventually make the day go as well as it could.

I did my best to ignore Peter and Wade, who I saw glimpses of in the distance. They didn’t need me interfering again. I had proven how bad that was last time.

I didn’t want to make the only people stuck in this with me to hate me.

By the end of the day, I was so exhausted that I collapsed into a spider hammock on the roof of the school. I didn’t bother going into my bed because I knew if I did there would be some staff members swarming and asking where I had been.

It was a big downside to living in a dormitory. Huge downside. I didn’t even have some big ‘alien invasion’ to explain away my disappearance.

I hugged the book of notes to my chest as I fell asleep.

* * *

_ “-Like baby, baby, baby oh _

_ I thought you'd always be mine (mine)” _

I reached over, turning off the alarm (like normal, I didn’t smash it  _ this _ time.). I sighed, reaching up and rubbing at my face.

Only to freeze.

I slowly raised my hand and looked at it.

I still had my Spider-man suit on.

I touched my chest, I was still hugging my book.

What the hell. What the heck!

I scrambled out of bed (I wasn’t in my spider hammock?), chucking the book behind me as I stumbled into the chair by my computer. I opened it, tapping my foot as I waited for it to load.

Nope, same day. Still groundhog day.

Still in hell.

But, I was definitely in my pyjamas yesterday? When I woke up?

Ok, ok. If I was still in these then had anything else changed?

I went back to my bed and picked up my book. Didn’t look any different on the outside… but on the inside, there was my writing from yesterday.

Something weird was going on, something even weirder than living in an endless loop. Which was really weird already.

What was I supposed to do now? Well, now there were consequences.

But wait! I was a semi-scientist. Not really a scientist. Not one at all. I was doing Chemistry, Biology, and Physics here at school because it was fun. And I got pretty good grades. I mean, I had to get good grades. If I didn’t then I would “lose the chance I got” like Uncle Aaron and Mum and Dad said. I mean Mum and Dad don’t  _ say that _ but it was pretty obvious they-

Ok, I was getting off track. If I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just going insane and I was, in fact, changing the world around me then I had to double check,  _ triple check _ , until I was certain.

I had to discover what had caused this change.

And I had all the time in the world.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Wade’s POV_ **

I gasped thickly around the blood in my mouth, sitting up the next moment and spitting it into the drain next to me.

Day whatever of this groundhog hell, begin!

I rubbed my eyes. This would be easier if some asshole hadn’t decided yesterday was the perfect time to knock my head off. Now I was stuck in Groundhog Day regrowing a head every time.

Ok, what to do. Go not-kill some goons, not talk to Peter, maybe talk to Miles. Sounded about right.

* * *

 

There were no goons in the alleyway.

There were none? What the hell?

I double checked my shitty phone. Nope. Still the same date. It still was groundhog day.

This called for some investigation. Probably by someone smarter than me. Peter could probably-

Peter didn’t want to be within ten feet of me, let alone talk. He had proved that a couple days ago well enough. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Miles either…

Maybe he had something to do with this?

This called for an investigation!

* * *

 

Who would have thought the kid was this fast? Not me apparently because I hadn’t brought along my trusty grappling hook like I was some rip off Batman -- which was super helpful keeping up with a highflying Spiderman.

Why hadn’t I brought it with me? Because I was an idiot apparently who hadn’t thought I would be chasing around Peter and his sort-of-but-not-really mentee?

Honestly, I didn’t get their relationship. I didn’t know enough about Miles and his past to know how it came about. It seemed like he wasn’t here one day and then suddenly there was another Spider-man running around New York.

It was midday and Miles was long gone. He had been running around like his pants were on fire.

What the hell could I do instead? I wasn’t planning on losing the day if I could help it.

C’mon, think Wade! Peter loved to yell about how I could do anything I put my mind to - and he was super smart! He knew what was up! I mean, it was normally around my mercenary work… but still!

I still didn’t know why the kid had dragged the two of us together. Why had he thought it would help anything? Was he planning on making everything miserable for all of us?

No, he was a smart kid. He wouldn’t do it for no reason.

Then why…

Maybe he thought dragging the three people who were stuck in this together would lead to some kind of plan? That sounded like the kid... even though I didn’t know him too well. It went along with everything I knew about him.

Maybe he was running around trying to make his own plan?

Maybe it might be a good idea to try and call a truce with him. If he couldn’t listen to reason when I said ‘you’re life is shit!’ then maybe he could listen to ‘your spider kid needs help.’

Mmm, maybe. Or at the very least I could grab Miles’s phone number so I could call the kid and see what the hell he was doing if Peter wouldn’t help.

But Peter’s too selfless to _not_ help the kid… he would help.

Hopefully, I wouldn’t get yelled at this time.

It was the only reason I was climbing through his window.

“Pete! You here?” I yelled, flopping onto the floor. I kept a comment about how disgusting his floor was to myself. Who kept pizza boxes so long that they literally grow their own civilisation?! I mean, I had before but that wasn’t the point.

“Go away, Wade!” his muffled voice yelled back.

I sat up, spotting him hiding under the covers like a child. “I thought Miles was supposed to be the only kid around here?”

He threw his covers off, giving me a glare so deadly if I wasn’t immortal it probably would have killed me. “What part of _go_ and _away_ didn’t you get?”

“Both.” I saw an argument about to start and interrupted his train of thought before it could even start. “Look, your kid needs help.”

He blinked a few times, “...do you mean Miles?”

“Who else would I be talking about? Or do we need to have a conversation about safe sex and-”

He threw an alarm clock at my face and I snickered. He only glowered more. “This is a never-ending day, what the hell could he have gotten himself into that needs _my_ help?”

I couldn’t hold back an eye roll. Good thing for masks or he would be yelling at me about making fun of him. “Yes, it is a never-ending day. And guess what?” I paused so he actually looked over at me. “ _It’s a never-ending day_. You know what I would be doing if I was alone in this hell?”

He winced, looking down at his lap. “I don’t think Miles would actually-”

“How well do you actually know Miles?” I interrupted, leaning back into the wall.

He frowned, looking back over at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I sighed. This could either end in an ugly fight or a breakthrough. It was looking about fifty-fifty here. “Outside of teaching him how to Spider-man, how much time have you spent with him? Have you watched a movie with him? Have you done anything as Miles and Peter?”

A cold silence descended upon us. Peter even huddled in on himself further. I refused to feel guilty. “... Not a lot.”

“He might be a bright, smiley kid as he runs around with you, but we just had a big fight. In front of him. Do you really think he’s going to want to talk to us about anything after that? I tried to catch up to the kid but he’s too fast for me to keep up with. You have webs though Peter,” I explained, voice dropping to a near whisper.

He wrung his hands out a few times. “... Fine. But you can’t argue with my methods, okay? I’m sick of that fight.”

“I can’t promise anything, Petey. Let’s get going,” I urged.

Reluctantly, Peter got out of bed. He was still in his Spider-man suit and he only had to grab his webs and mask from beside him. I waited quietly as he covered his face, hiding any expressions from me and the rest of the world. I sighed and heaved myself up to my feet.

“I’m not carrying you around,” Peter said, his voice level.

I mocked surprise, bring a hand up to my chest as I gasped like a drama queen. “But I thought we were friends!”

He stopped and stared at me for a few seconds. Watching me. I kept myself loose and relaxed as much as I wanted to get him to move on. He then sighed and climbed through the window, jumping out and into a swing a second later.

I couldn’t be bothered to climb out after him.

I sat down and pulled out my phone. New York was big, it might take Peter awhile to find him. Might as well do something in the meantime.

… Wait.

I looked back around the apartment. At the dirty dishes, the clothes on the floor, the rubbish everywhere.

Well… he might hate me for snooping...

When had that ever stopped me before?

If something happened, I did have notifications on.

* * *

 

_**Miles POV** _

This might not have been a very smart idea.

“What the _hell_ Miles! The _Lizard_ , really? **_Really?!_ **” Peter roared at me, swinging around the Lizard and kicking him in the back of the head.

“He was in the sewers! He was going to-,” I grunted as I flipped out of the way of his claws, bouncing off a wall and kicking him in the shins. His tail swung around and I narrowly dodged it, “-go after a scientist guy!”

Peter webbed The Lizard’s mouth shut and wrapped his legs around his neck, before flipping back and dragging him and his body down onto the ground. He quickly webbed him up and I joined in with some of my own.

In only seconds he couldn’t move an inch.

Peter folded his arms and turned to me. Even with his mask on I could feel the glare being levelled at me. “So. Wanna tell me what the hell you’re doing?”

I peeked over to the end of the alleyway. There were several people standing around looking vaguely interested, several of them had phones out and I could hear sirens coming in from a street or two over.

“Not here?” I pleaded, taking a small step back.

Peter’s fists clenched and I lowered my crouch. “Fine, but we are talking about this. You’ve got that?”

“Yes, sir,” I answered quietly, leaning against the alleyway wall.

Instead of the police, Wade turned up. And he was wearing an apron? Which was pink? And really frilly? What even.

“What the hell are you guys doing? You are all over the news!” He proclaimed.

“Why are you wearing an apron? You didn’t explode something in my apartment, right?” Peter asked nervously.

Wade shrugged, “Depends on your definition. Now you,” he said, turning and pointing at me, “why are you fighting the Lizard? He is way out of your level.”

I sighed, “I could take him.”

Peter folded his arms, “No you can’t. He is dangerous-”

“You were running around nearly getting yourself killed when you were my age, Peter!” I argued.

“Yes and I regret that! Focus on school!”

“I still managed to take him down, didn’t I?”

“Not without my help!”

“Can we _please_ take this somewhere else?” I ground out. Peter and Wade seemed to come to a decision at a glance. Peter clapped me on the back and dragged me toward the alley wall.

When we were on the roof (Wade had been webbed up by Peter, I was surprised he hadn’t used a grappling hook or something) Peter folded his arms and leaned against the air conditioning unit. “Talk.”

“We can change how the day plays out, or at least I’m pretty sure,” I explained.

Wade looked at me doubtfully, “But this is groundhog day, nothing changes. That’s the whole point.”

“But this isn’t the movie,” I pointed out. “We don’t actually know what’s causing this. It could be anywhere from space-time messing up to a magician, or even someone like Loki. We just don’t know. After the fight,” both Peter and Wade winced at that, “I decided to test this whole thing out.”

Peter frowned, “so you decided taking down the Lizard was your best bet? Miles, that’s dangerous as hell. Why didn’t you call either of us?”

I looked down at my feet. “Didn’t think either of you wanted to see me. And this isn’t actually the first thing I’ve tested. I stopped some crime and then the next day I found myself in my costume and none of the things I had stopped the day before happened.”

“In your costume? Back up. Did you get any bruises or anything the day before?” Peter asked, leaning forward.

“No? It was all pretty low-grade stuff…” I trailed off.

Peter turned to Wade. “Have you gotten hurt since this whole thing started?”

He shifted uncomfortably, “I mean, probably?”

“Have any of your injuries carried over?”

He shrugged, hunching in on himself. “I didn’t really check. My head was cut off on the day before this all started so spitting up blood isn’t really all that, uh, unusual.”

“Does that mean we could die? You know, permanently?” I asked quietly.

Peter sighed, kicking absently at a loose pebble, “not sure. This could just mean the spell is wavering or space-time is protesting all this. Don’t get yourself killed, ok? That includes you, Wade, we don’t know if this could change your healing.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Wade brushed off.

Peter sighed again, heavier than the last, “But that still doesn’t excuse what you’ve done Miles. You could have died. What if you had died and blinked out of existence?”

“That seems a bit extreme, don’t you think? Besides, the Lizard’s been taken care of.” I grovelled.

Wade sat up, “Kid, I don’t think you’re getting how serious we are. We want you to learn from us.”

I folded my arms. “But I’m not you guys. I’ve watched you all for years. Well,” I tipped my head to the side, “sort of. Point is, I’ve watched you guys stumble and fall. I’ve watched you guys nearly _die_ dozens of times. I _am_ learning from you guys.”

“Not the same thing as being in a fight,” Peter pointed out.

“Alright then, what the hell do you want me to do? I’ve been fighting the small fights for nearly a year now and I’m more than ready to fight the bigger guys. I _have_ fought some of the bigger guys. You can’t just baby me,” I said, with more calm than I felt.

Peter facepalmed, “can you just listen? I’m not saying you are a bad fighter. I’m not saying you aren’t cut out for this job. I am saying that give it some time, let yourself get used to your powers. Who knows if you’ll develop any more?”

“I think what Peter is trying to say is that this isn’t fun and games, kiddo,” Wade began quietly. “We don’t know what we’re messing with. Even I’m at risk. I’m always the first man in because I can survive anything, but if I mess up I could be gone for good. We need to be careful.”

I gave in, there was no point in trying to argue. “I will. I won’t go fight the Lizard or whatever.”

Peter sighed in relief, and I shifted uncomfortably. “This whole thing is insane, but we’ll figure it out.”

“How?” Wade asks, “If we can’t go after the big guys that _will_ make a splash if it carries over, then what will we do?”

“I- I don’t know. How about we see how the Lizard thing goes.” Peter finally said after a short pause.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” I grovelled.

Wade tilted his head back, “Is this what having a kid is like? Because this is not fun. I swear everything we just said went in one ear and out the other.”

“Hey! I was listening-!”

“Stop! This has been a stressful day and we’re all tired,” Peter interrupted, giving Wade and I a stern look. “Let’s all head home, get a good night’s sleep, and meet back here tomorrow. Capiche?”

Wade and I both nodded our agreement.

Peter sighed, sagging, “Glad we got that out of the way.” He stood up, waved his goodbye, and swung away.

Wade turned to me, “Can’t believe he’s actually being responsible. Who could imagine?”

I rolled my eyes and went my own way.

* * *

 

**_Peter’s Pov_ **

If I hadn’t known it was my apartment, I would have had no idea it was mine.

It was clean.

There were no clothes on the ground, there weren’t any stains in the couch or on my bed, all the rubbish was cleared up and in the middle of the floor was a box that had been labelled ‘stuff I wasn’t sure about.’

Who the hell would have done this? Not Aunt May, she was currently on a trip to California, and even if she wasn’t, she had never come around during any of the days stuck in this.

Mary Jane was busy doing whatever she did, so…

Oh.

Wade.

That explained the apron.

I carefully climbed through the window and closed it behind me.

I wanted to be angry at him, I was waiting for a familiar feeling of helplessness to come creeping back and burying itself into my skin. Instead, I was… just shocked. And grateful.

I sifted through the last of the stuff and when I went to grab a snack I found a meal already cooked for me. And it _wasn’t_ ramen.

The clean sheets when I went to bed made it that much easier to fall asleep.

I would have to thank him tomorrow.

* * *

 

Miles was right, things were changing. First, my room remaining clean, and now all the circus men were gone. And not gone as in they had gone on a walk or something, as in there was no sign of them _ever_ existing.

It was beyond weird to walk through the alleyway and not find any evidence of anyone being here in well over a couple of days.

I almost wanted to search up the guys just to check they hadn’t been swallowed up by space-time. That might not be a bad idea, actually.

I fished my phone out of my pocket and searched up one of the guy's names. Nope, he was in prison? That was kind of odd. Maybe it wasn’t so much that space-time was swallowing events, but that it was letting time progress in little ways.

But what had caused the change? Maybe Miles or Wade will suddenly wake up with no memory of any of the resets because of the changes happening? Maybe we weren’t the only ones to get stuck in this loop- maybe we’re just the current participants!

What would happen if we failed-

“Miles was right, huh?”

I jumped a mile into the air. Literally. I ended up on the underside of the closest fire escape. I looked down and found Wade struggling to contain his laughter.

“Wade, you asshole!” I yelled. He snickered. “Don’t just sneak up behind me like that!”

“But I’ve got to get my enjoyment out of life from somewhere!” He protested, groaning up to the sky like a teenager. I rolled my eyes.

“Go get your ‘enjoyment out of life’ somewhere else then. What do you want anyway?” I sat down and folded my legs under me - upside down.

He hummed, “world peace, to fed the starving, a pony, your love, maybe two ponies-”

“Wade, you know what I mean.”

He put his hands on his waist and jutted his hips like he was trying to be the next big drag queen. It wasn’t working. “You suck the joy out of everything. Ok, so, I’m guessing it’s the same as you because there is no sign of those goons anywhere, which is different and all, and we need to figure out why and how.”

I let myself drop down to the ground. I casually walked up to him. “My running theories is that either time-space is protesting, someone cast a spell and its fluctuating or a combination of both.”

“So, basically, what you said last night,” Wade commented, raising an eyebrow. I sometimes really liked how thin and flimsy Wade’s mask was.

I smiled, “so you _do_ listen sometimes?”

He scoffed and swatted my arm. “I listen to everything you say! Like, I haven’t killed in like a week- hey don’t give me that look! He was a pedophile! I doubly triply checked too!”

I crossed my arms. “Then let him go to jail instead of killing him? Maybe some of the victims want him to suffer through a life sentence instead of-”

He shoved a finger up to my lips, I pushed it out of the way. “Peter. Listen to me. He was a pedophile. They did horrible things and they weren’t being brought to justice. The person who commissioned me even specially tracked _me_ down because I had been trying not to kill anyone. Ok? Ok.”

I shifted back, scoffing the tips of my shoe on the ground. “Alright, fine, whatever,” I mumbled.

“The person who hired me was the victim, as well. I made sure that this was what they wanted. So don’t bring your ‘lawful good’ morality into this,” he said, shifting back and looking at his feet.

_“You killed him! How could you?”_

_“He hurt you!”_

I blinked away the memory. I sighed quietly, “Sorry.”

He shrugged. “It’s fine. I, uh, I get it. You don’t like it. I know you won’t ever budge on it. But, I don’t want to rehash it.”

I rubbed nervously at the back of my neck. I wanted the ground to swallow me up. This wasn’t a conversation I had ever wanted to have, but… I missed Wade.

After a small hesitation, I tore my mask off and stared him in the eyes, or at least where his eyes were under the mask. This was… long overdue. “Wade, I’m sorry for everything I said that day. It was-was cruel of me and I can never make up for it.” I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I folded them. “I knew what you did for a living before we started dating - and I repaid everything you had done for me by spitting in your face…”

Wade shifted forward, slowly and unsure in his movements.

I looked at him warily. What the heck was he doing?

He raised his hands in the universal symbol for a hug. Oh. I swallowed nervously but nodded my agreement. Maybe he needed something to ground him after all these days of being stuck in this loop. I could give that, I could help him.

He wrapped me in a warm, kind embrace. It was like a koala hugging a tree, firm, unmoving, but still full bodied. Or maybe it was an octopus I was thinking of - because he was everywhere. But in a good way. Like a blanket on a cold day while sipping on a hot chocolate

Or maybe I was just overthinking this. I found myself absently fiddling with a loose thread on the back of his costume.

I had missed this.

I didn’t deserve this.

I still buried my head in his shoulder.

“I had pushed you too far, anyway. I knew you were going to snap yet I still pushed you into the course. I’m sorry too,” Wade whispered, barely audible.

I shuddered and pressed closer. “I’m so selfish. You gave me the opportunity of a lifetime - a freaking Masters course in bioengineering, that isn’t nothing. And I treated you like crap over it.”

“It’s no more than you deserve-” he started, but I was quick to interrupt.

“I don’t though! Everyone around me gets killed and then the first person I know can’t, I push away. You don’t deserve me, you deserve someone who treats you right!” I hissed, burying my head deeper into him.

He sighed but didn’t protest. Instead, he asked quietly, “what brought all this on?”

I shrugged, although it felt odd while pressed up against him. “Been a weird couple of days, I guess. Feels strange telling Miles off for doing exactly what I would have done.”

“If you stopped being a daredevil who didn’t know your own limits I would think you’d been possessed or cursed or something. But Miles will be alright, we’ll keep an eye on him,” Wade reassured.

I frowned and tilted my head up, “Wait, are we Dads now?”

Wade burst out into loud, roaring laughs. I couldn’t help but be dragged into it too, sniggering. “I think we are, baby boy! We’ve got the adoption papers and everything.”

I grinned. “Don’t let Miles hear you say that. He’s still in his teenage rebellious years.”

“Oh, you can say that again. Where is he today anyway?” Wade asked.

“He might be where the lizard fight ended. I did say for us to meet up again there sometime today. Maybe we should start heading that way?”

Wade tilted his head for a moment, then nodded. “Sure, sounds like a plan. Hey, can I get a piggyback ride there?”

I groaned like it was the worst thing that could ever be asked of me. “But you’re so heavy!”

He gasped, letting go of me for a moment to slap both sides of his cheeks like an overgrown toddler who had been told he couldn’t have dessert. “Did you just call me fat?!”

I bit back a smile. “I don’t know. If the shoe fits.”

“You take that back!”

I smiled goofily. This felt so right, like two puzzle pieces finally fitting together.

Maybe we could actually figure out our issues? I wanted Wade back in my life.

“ _Oh my god_ ! Just _kiss_ already!”

I startled so hard I ended up back on the fire escape. On the ground, Wade had brandished his katanas.

With a puff of green smoke, none other than… Loki had shown up.

Wade glanced my way, I glanced down at him, Loki looked at me, I stared back, Wade looked down at the ground and sighed, the rat in the corner gave us a dismissive glance before continuing on its business.

Loki puts his arms out like a magician after a trick. “Tada! It was me all along!”

“What do you mean it was you all along?” Wade growled, lowering his katanas though none of the tension in his body dissipated.

He rolled his eyes. “Ask your ex,“ he gestured in my direction, “he’s got a degree, I’m sure he could answer that.”

“So... you’re the asshole who’s been keeping us trapped in a never-ending day. Good to know! Now I know who to skewer like a shish-kebab!” Wade yelled, jerking forward. I grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back just in time.

“Let me get this straight, Loki,” I began. “You did the whole repeating days thing… to get us back together?”

He chuckled, smiling at us like we were children who would never get it. “That, and I was testing out my magic. Getting you two back together was just a bonus!”

“We’re not dating!”

“Dating?!”

Wade and I glanced at each other. I buried my face in my hand and he shuffled nervously. This was way too complicated.

Loki cackled at our outburst. “Mortals are so amusing. You two clearly like each other. Anyway! I have things to do and places to be!”

There was a loud bang and crash behind us. I jumped onto the wall while Wade tensed back up again.

I looked back, nope that wasn’t a distraction by Loki so he could poof his way out of here. He was still standing there, head tilted towards the sound.

“Sorry guys! Didn’t mean to come _crashing_ in!” Sure enough, Miles crawled out from the dumpster he had landed in and came sauntering up to us.

“Mil- Spider-man? I thought we were going to meet you at that building?” I asked, crawling back down the wall.

He shrugged, “Yeah but I wanted to make sure the goons weren’t here to try and kill you for the millionth time, _then_ I saw you guys hugging and didn’t want to interrupt, and _then_ Loki showed up so I _was_ going to play back-up but then you guys didn’t fight and _now_ I want to ask a favour of Loki, capiche?”

“You were watching the whole time?!” I whisper-shouted. Oh my god, had everyone stopped by to watch our moment? Oh my god!! This wasn’t cool!!

Miles kicked at a bit of rubbish. “Sorry, uh, didn’t mean to intrude.” He took a deep breath then turned to Loki. “Can you do just _one_ more repeat?”

“One more? Mil- Spider-man, haven’t we gone through enough days?” Wade asked, clearly confused.

“Yeah, I know, it’s just that, uh, I may or may not have revealed my identity to my whole school…?”

The silence was very awkward, filled with me staring at Miles, glancing at Wade, glancing at Loki and then facepalming. Wade began cackling quietly, bent in half like this was the funniest joke in existence and Loki was nodding slowly, amused.

“In my defence, I was trying to get here to you guys and they blocked my way! I was getting frog-marched to class like they were remembering me ditching every other day in this whole bunch of looping days and I had to do something! Please don’t kill me, Peter,” Miles whined, pleading his case.

I sighed. Teenagers.

“Fine, one more day…” I said begrudgingly.

Miles let out a quiet “yes!”

“I guess I could give you one more day… though, keeping your identity known like this may be funny…” Loki murmured, more to himself than us.

Wade was at Loki’s throat before I could even try to convince Loki. “Do that,” he hissed, “and I can show you what it feels like to die a slow and painful death, emphasis on the words slow, painful and death.”

Loki visibly swallowed. “Yeah, yeah I guess I can give you guys another day. Hope you had fun!”

Miles looked like he was about to say something, but everything got woozy and-

* * *

 

My alarm went off.

I jolted, thankfully not flinging myself out of bed this time. I groaned, man, that was disorientating. This time there hadn’t been an explosion, like a couple hours ago. Or… today? I cursed, rubbing at my growing forehead. This timeline thing was confusing.

I hesitantly reached for my phone. Had Loki really done it? Was it really today all over again?

7 am, March 3rd.

I put my phone back in its place. It was today all over again. He _had_ actually kept his promise.

Huh.

That answered that question.

I was about to get going as Spider-man when my phone pinged.

**_Wade_ ** _: Wanna come over to my place? We can do whatever you like ;)_

I smiled goofily. I shuffled over to my wardrobe and picked out some fresh clothes. Maybe him and I could go and see a movie together? That would be nice.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sparkstar-trash), my [Discord](https://discord.gg/5QTeNY2) server or send me a question on [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/sparkstar)!
> 
> All credit for the art goes to the amazing artist! Go check them out on Instagram [@romeyruu](https://www.instagram.com/romeyruu) and Tumblr [@the-italian-pasta](https://the-italian-pasta.tumblr.com/)
> 
> ~
> 
> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. I invite and appreciate feedback, including:
> 
> Short comments  
> Long comments  
> Questions  
> Constructive criticism  
> “<3” as extra kudos  
> Reader-reader interaction  
>   
> I reply to all comments unless you want to whisper. For any reason, if you don't want to have me reply (sometimes I feel shy when I’m reading and not up to starting a conversation, for example), feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


End file.
